And Now, the National Abortion Consent Drive Begins

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There is among us, alas, a class of people who firmly believe that we can all find a certain "common ground" on the issue of a woman's right to control her reproductive life. Many of these stoog... er... well-meaning people are nominally liberal. Some of them on the other side believe that the issue is best left to the states. When asked how a patchwork of individual state regulations will not result in those laws' being made ridiculous through the simple expedient of driving from a state where abortion is illegal to a state where it is not, these folks generally shrug and depend on the good faith of the other side not to make too much of the issue. How, in short, do we keep state laws from being made a mockery without the federal equivalent of a Fugitive Slave Law? And we all know how well that worked out the last time.

Well, it turns out that the House of Representatives has come to our rescue. This law pertains to minors, but you have to be completely naive to believe that, if the Supreme Court turns the issue back to the states, there won't be an identical one slouching out of the House within a month. Down the line, some woman, seeking to exercise what once was a constitutional right to choose, is going to end up as the new Dred Scott, and we all know how well that worked out the last time, too.